This Week In History: 1955 Vancouver police scandal

John Mackie, Vancouver Sun06.26.2015

The front page of The Sun after detective Len Cuthbert tried to commit suicide inside a police station. He was later fired.

Vancouver police detective-sergeant Len Cuthbert talked to Province reporter Ed Moyer at Vancouver General Hospital a month after trying to kill himself at the Vancouver police station. Cuthbert’s testimony about police corruption led to the downfall of Vancouver police chief Walter Mulligan.

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Sixty years ago, Ray Munro penned a series of stories about corruption in the Vancouver police force.

Munro stated a local gambler had several police on the take, including chief Walter Mulligan. Munro wrote the explosive stories for The Province, where he worked. But the editors declined to run them, so he quit and published them in Flash, a Toronto tabloid.

Chief Mulligan sued Munro and Flash for libel, but police detective-sergeant Len Cuthbert knew there was something behind the allegations.

So on June 24, 1955, Cuthbert went into an empty room at the police station, took out his police revolver, aimed it at his heart, and pulled the trigger.

He missed, by a quarter of an inch.

Cuthbert’s suicide attempt prompted the authorities to call an inquiry. A royal commission headed by R.H. Tupper dominated the headlines for months with lurid stories of bribes, bookies and bootleggers.

It had a bit of everything, from sex (the married Mulligan had kept a mistress) to tragedy (police superintendent Harry Whalen killed himself the day he was to testify at the inquiry).

Cuthbert had confessed his role in the scandal to Whalen just before Cuthbert tried to commit suicide. Munro had implicated Cuthbert in his stories, and Cuthbert was frantic.

“I’m going to have to blow my brains out or something,” Cuthbert told Sun police reporter Ron Thornber. “That’s the only way to settle the problems I’ve got.”

One hundred and twenty-six witnesses testified during the 40 day inquiry, producing 1.28 million words of testimony.

The inquiry got off with a bang on July 13 when detective-sergeant Robert Leatherdale said Mulligan and Cuthbert had tried to get him to extort money from bootleggers.

In 1949, Leatherdale was named head of the liquor squad. Cuthbert gave him his marching orders, “to put pressure on bootleggers not paying for protection.”

“It was to be my job to collect monthly and to split with the chief and the men of the liquor detail,” Leatherdale told the inquiry. “The chief wanted money.”

Leatherdale told Mulligan he wanted no part of the liquor squad job, or the bribes. He told the city prosecutor, the police commissioner and the mayor about the corruption, which resulted in an internal investigation. But no charges were laid.

On July 14, the inquiry got more damning testimony from former policeman Jack Whalen, the brother of superintendent Harry Whalen, and the bodyguard of Flash reporter Munro.

Jack Whalen said that in 1945 he acted as a “go-between” between Mulligan, Cuthbert and gambling kingpin Pete “Blondie” Wallace. He related a proposal where Wallace would run gambling dens east of Carrall, and Bruce Snider and Leo Bancroft would run gambling on the west side. The two syndicates were to pay Mulligan and Cuthbert $5,000 a month for protection.

Cuthbert took the stand July 28.

“Before a mob of thrusting, scuffling, hissing spectators, he clutched at his breast where earlier he had shot himself, rocked back and forth like a caged animal in torment and insisted his chief must share his guilt,” The Sun reported.

Cuthbert denied he and Mulligan had received a $5,000 bribe per month, but said in 1949 he had taken several brown paper bags filled with $500 from Wallace. He took the money to Mulligan, who counted it, then split the proceeds with Cuthbert.

Cuthbert also related that Ray Munro had visited him at his home and tried to get him to confess before the stories ran in Flash. At one point, Munro pulled out a gun and set it down in front of Cuthbert.

“Len, you’re stuck,” Munro told Cuthbert. “You’re in trouble. You’ve got one of three choices. You can blow your brains out, or you can go to jail, or you can see the right party.”

Cuthbert was subjected to a nasty cross-examination by Mulligan’s “big, burly” lawyer, T.G. Norris. Before Harry Whalen was scheduled to testify, Flash’s lawyer Neil Fleishman warned Whalen that Norris planned to “smear him” on the stand.

Distressed, Whalen shot himself in the heart Aug. 5. Unlike Cuthbert, he was successful.

The Tupper inquiry concluded that Mulligan and Cuthbert had taken bribes, but cleared several other police officers. Incredibly, the province decided not to lay any charges.

Mulligan moved to California, where he became a flower salesman in Pasadena. Cuthbert was fired by the police for attempting suicide in the police station.

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This Week In History: 1955 Vancouver police scandal

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